Victor Harris ( Erin Pottery )

I'm very pleased to have found this forum, i'm really looking forward to receiving feed back both good and bad regarding my tea bowls and hopefully this will help me to progress in this art form. Since making my first tea bowl around a year or so ago, i have found that i really enjoyed the process and every time that my kiln has tea bowls in the firing load, i find myself getting excited when opening up to see the results.At present i have made and sold around 150 bowls some to galleries in the UK and in Hong kong, but mostly to individuals in the UK, Europe, USA and Australia.

Below are some details regarding Erin pottery and how i work.

Erin pottery was established in 1998 ( although by then i had already been making bonsai pots for around 6 years or so ) and produced unique hand made Bonsai pots.Our Bonsai pots are now sold world wide, some even going to Japan.As a natural progression from the art and philosophy of bonsai, i have found myself drawn towards the Japanese Tea Ceremony and especially the tea bowls.

I mostly use a stoneware crank, but I also hand mix small individual batches of clay to give unique colours and textures to the clay body. I use both electric and gas kilns. I fire to stoneware between 1260 c and 1300 c. I build my pots using various methods - slabbing, coiling and pinching. I don't use a wheel. Many of my glazes and clay bodies are totally unique, I will make a small batch of glaze or mix of clay and once i have used them up, I don't repeat them again.For all of my bowls i use food safe glazes.

My tea bowls are made in the spirit of Wabi Sabi and hopefully this gives them lots of character.